Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix
Chapter 55:- Unhinging Umbridge
Quaint and small as the Fairy Tail guildhall was, Yukino Aguria was finding it to be one of the most charming places she'd ever visited. Aside from a couple of suggestive looks from Wakaba, everybody there had been wonderful hosts and were practically treating her as a member of the family even though she'd only been with them for a couple of days.
She'd stayed the nights in a small room in the back of the guildhall itself with Kinana. Since Kinana didn't actually get paid for working for Fairy Tail she couldn't afford a place of her own to live, so they had constructed a room for her in her own workplace when they had been forced to make this area. It hadn't really been designed for two people to sleep there, but Kinana had broken out a few extra blankets and insisted that Yukino take the bed. The Celestial Spirit Mage had tried very hard to take the floor, but Kinana wouldn't have it.
"You've provided hope to a once forlorn guild," she had said. "Giving you the bed is the very least I can do under the circumstances."
"Oh… well… well, only if you're absolutely certain…"
"Trust me, I am," Kinana smiled.
In the two days since she'd been there she'd spent her time getting to know its members and continuing to pass the occasional letter back and forth between herself and Lucy. Said letters were more infrequent than before but were also longer - at one point Lucy sent through practically an entire essay outlining the kinds of things that they'd been getting up to on Earth, as it was apparently named, and giving a lot of fascinating details about the place.
And she'd also participated in talks about what exactly they were planning on doing next. Which was what she was doing right at this moment - they'd all gathered around one big table in the centre of the hall and were poring over a map of Earthland that Warren had dug up. Yukino currently had Asuka sitting on her lap, which was a little embarrassing considering how Alzack and Bisca kept making comments about how cute it was, but she was nevertheless trying to concentrate.
"If there's a place where we can do any research about the possibilities of dimension travel, it would probably be here," Warren was saying as he tapped his finger on a single point of the map in the middle of a forest. "The Magic Library… it's got tons of books and other magical artefacts or so I heard. If there was anything at all that could help us out, my guess is it would be there."
"Levy was always saying that she wanted to go there," Jet mused. "But she never found a job that would be able to take us out that way since its not exactly close by."
"But do we really think that we'll be able to find something there?" Droy asked. "I know its got a lot of books but if we can't find anything then we could end up searching for an answer in there for weeks for nothing."
"Well, we don't really have a lot of other options at the moment, do we?" Max pointed out. "It seems as good a place as any to start, along with maybe Hibiki's Archive."
"Are you sure that you only want to tell Blue Pegasus and Lamia Scale about all this?" Yukino asked, bouncing a giggling Asuka lightly on her knees. "Wouldn't it be better to get the word out that the other Fairy Tail members are still alive? Surely the Magic Council would be able to provide some great resources to help."
"…I don't know if that would be the best idea," Macao coughed uncomfortably. "The Magic Council don't really like us very much."
"Or more precisely, they don't very much like… almost everyone that's trapped on Earth," Alzack corrected. "Back when they were home they… shall we say… had some pretty destructive tendencies."
"Natsu, Gray, Erza, Elfman even Mirajane and many of the others, were always going overboard on their jobs and causing quite a bit of collateral damage in the process," Bisca said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head in the process.]
"Explosions are fun!" Asuka cheered, which made most of the room laugh and facefault at the same time.
"But anyway, it wouldn't at all surprise us if the Magic Council turned a blind eye if we told them," Max wrinkled his nose. "They might think that having our other members sealed away in another world is preferable as it removed a major headache for them."
"Surely they can't do that," Yukino frowned. "If the word gets out then people might put pressure on them to act wouldn't they? I mean… we're talking about bringing people home to where they belong."
"They might be," Macao conceded. "But still, I don't think it would be a good idea to tell them directly. I don't want to give them time to cover it up just in case they did choose to go that way."
"Probably for the best," Wakaba agreed.
"What's all this then?" said a sudden voice by the door, causing everyone to look up sharply. Five figures were standing in the open doorway, hands akimbo and leering imperiously down at the huddled group. Immediately Bisca grabbed Asuka from out of Yukino's lap and stepped backwards while Alzack got in front of them. All of the Fairy Tail members tensed and the room took on an immediate heavy air.
Yukino found herself tensing too as a result. She didn't know these people but she could guess who they were. They had to be member of the other guild in this town, Twilight Ogre. And their smug, superior grins were already enough to make give Yukino a good reason not to like them.
The middle of the five men was a man with poofy dark hair, wearing a headband with yellow devil horns and carrying a very large, spiky mace across his back. He strode arrogantly into the room like he owned it and said, "We couldn't help but overhear what you were just saying there, Fairy Fails. Is it true? All those members of yours that you lost six years ago are stranded in another world?"
"…This is the other reason why we didn't particularly want word to get out," Kinana whispered in Yukino's ear. "Twilight Ogre's been extremely hard on the guild for years and if they found out its most powerful members might be coming back…"
She didn't need to finish the sentence. Yukino understood. If Fairy Tail were to return to its old strength, they'd suddenly become competition. Which could end quite badly if she understood the relationship between the two guilds correctly. But there wasn't much helping it now.
"Yes, it's true, Teebo" Macao said reluctantly as he got to his feet. "What of it?"
"How very fascinating," the man, Teebo, grinned widely though he didn't look the least bit fascinated. "I'm guessing you're planning on trying to bring them back then?"
"And why would we not be?" Romeo got to his feet with a snarl. "They're our friends. We should be bringing them back to where they belong."
"Is that so?" Teebo sneered, hefting his club as the other sneering members advanced behind him with wide grins. "What do you think will happen if they do return? That Fairy Tail will return to its former glory at the top of the heap? Well, I'm sure I've told you this before, but your days in the spotlight are over."
"What are you doing here, Teebo?" Macao redirected the conversation quickly. "I already gave Banaboster this month's payment."
"Just barely, so I can gather," Teebo snorted derisively. "But there's no particular reason for this visit. We just happened to be in the neighbourhood so we thought we'd stop by. And it's a good thing we did too. So we can put an end to this notion of you bringing your pals back home."
"You might be able to bully us into supplying you with monthly payments, Teebo," Macao said firmly as the other members got to their feet behind him. "But if there's one thing you cannot intimidate us into doing, it's abandoning our fellow members."
"We're bringing them back and that's final," Jet agreed.
"You're not going to stop us this time. No way," Nab threw in.
"I guess you need to be reminded of your place then, don't you?" Teebo said, hefting his weapon at the same time as the other Ogres. It was then he finally noticed there was a new face in the room and grinned at Yukino. "Why hello there," he winked at her. "Whatever are you doing with this bunch of losers? Why don't you come down to our guild and hang out with some real mages."
Yukino grimaced and got to her feet, but before anyone could do anything the floor suddenly darkened. The Ogres jumped in surprise when the wood beneath their feet became bathed in a sudden shadow… a shadow which coalesced in front of them between the two sides until a man with untidy black hair suddenly leapt out from and spun around to face them.
"Rogue-sama!" Yukino cried in delight.
"EIRYUU NO HOUKOU!"
The pall of darkness that blasted out of Rogue's mouth ploughed its way into all five of the Twilight Ogre members, scooping them off the ground and sending them hurtling back through the door, yelling in pain as they skidded across the ground and sent the chickens in the nearby coop wild with fear. Teebo landed on top of one of his comrades and struggled to sit back up. But his throat ran dry when he saw not only Rogue staring at them from the doorway, but also Sting crouching on the roof of the guild.
"The Twin Dragons of Sabertooth?" he croaked. "What… what are you two doing here?"
"Just seeing if you're worth the effort," Sting shrugged nonchalantly. "But it turns out you're not. I was rather hoping you'd all get up quickly so I could leap down from here and beat the crap out of you, but if you're so weak that you'll just lie there groaning after one hit from Rogue then I'm not even going to bother."
"Sting-kun could smash you all without even putting the slightest amount of effort into it, yes!" Lector said smugly from nearby. "You guys aren't even worth his breath. And not even his dragon breath."
"Fro thinks so too."
"That being said though," Rogue spread his arms and shadows seemed to start peeling their way off his body to fill the doorway on either side of him, his eyes hardening to give the Ogres a stare that had all five of them cowering. "If you tell anyone what you heard here today, about the fact that many Fairy Tail members are still alive, you will not like the consequences."
"So if word of it starts appearing in the Weekly Sorcerer, we'll know who to blame," Sting smirked, raising one hand above his head to form a huge javelin of light in one hand and taking careful aim at the spot right between Teebo's eyes. "And we'll come track all five of you down and make you wish you'd never even heard of either Fairy Tail or Sabertooth. Understand?"
Teebo nodded furiously, as did all four of the others.
"Then get lost."
WHOOSH!
All five of them were gone hurtling down the line back towards their guild before anybody could blink. Lector pinched his nose as they fled, waving his other paw in front of his face and saying, "Ugh, I think one of them soiled his pants."
"Fro thinks they all did."
"You're probably right."
"Sting-sama, Rogue-sama," Yukino ran forwards to meet them as they dissipated their magic. "Thank you very much for your prompt intervention. But I was about to take them on myself."
"And you could have done it easily," Sting chuckled as he leapt from the roof to land neatly beside them. "Those guys were so weak it's laughable. But while you may be strong Yukino, you're… not very intimidating."
"And we needed to make sure that lot kept their mouths shut until the time was right so that the Master doesn't figure out what we're doing," Rogue agreed. "No offence, Yukino, but we were better for that job than you."
"…No offence taken," Yukino smiled, a little sheepishly. "You're very right."
"The Twin Dragons of Sabertooth," Laki whispered, in a voice that was both wary and awed all at once. "Why in the world are you frequenting this locality?"
"Don't tell me they're here to help as well," Jet gasped.
"Oh, Sting-sama and Rogue-sama have been very helpful so far," said Yukino. "They're the ones who helped ensure Master Jiemma wouldn't know that I came to see you. We don't think he'd approve very much if I had."
"So this is the once great Fairy Tail?" Sting snorted as he looked about the place. "Damn, I knew you guys had fallen far but you sure fell hard too didn't you?"
"Sting-sama, that's rude," Yukino gasped. "You should be more polite to these kind people. They've been hosting me for the past couple of nights after all."
"Fine, fine," Sting shrugged, but he was still looking around with a rather derisive smirk that made many of the Fairy Tail members grit their teeth. Rogue just closed his eyes and leaned against the doorframe, not offering any opinion of his own which in some ways annoyed the other Fairy Tail members as well because even though he didn't outright agree with Sting he didn't agree with Yukino either.
"Still, I can't believe that this was actually the guild Natsu-san's a part of. Speaking of which, have you made any progress on how to get Natsu-san back into this universe?" Sting asked.
"No," Yukino shook her head. "But we were just talking about places where we might be able to find an answer before we were interrupted."
"Well I hope you find answers soon," Sting grinned, socking his fist into his palm excitedly. "I can't wait to finally get a chance to take on my old hero."
"Old heroes, Sting-kun," Lector smirked matter-of-factly. "You could take on any one of their old members after all."
"Is that all this is about to you?" Macao frowned. "You're only helping to get a chance to battle someone we've though to be dead for six years?"
"Pretty much, yeah," Sting said, without the slightest hint of shame.
"Just how selfish can you be?" Max growled, as he and several of the others looked like they were about to leap forward to try taking Sting on for themselves. But before they could do so, Rogue cut into the conversation.
"Whatever our reasons for wanting them back, we need to sort things out quickly. It won't be long before news that we've finished the job we left for reaches Sabertooth and Master Jiemma will expect us back soon. You know he doesn't like it when we procrastinate."
"That's true, he doesn't," Yukino pursed her lips. "Alright then, I'll send a letter to Lucy-sama to let her know I'll be heading home today."
"Great," Sting nodded. "I want to have a look around town though, so we'll meet you outside Kardia Cathedral later."
"See you later, Yukino," Lector added, as the two Dragon Slayers and their partners stepped out. Macao and the other Fairy Tail members watched them go for a while and once he was sure they were out of of earshot the guild master turned to Yukino.
"Once again, we can't thank you enough for what you've done for us, Yukino. And if you ever wish to return to our guild for a bit you would be most welcome. Though… I cannot really say the same for your comrades."
"You'll have to excuse them," Yukino coughed. "They can be a little… blunt… with most people but like most people in Sabertooth they value how strong people are over everything else."
"How did a nice girl like you end up joining a guild like them anyway?" Wakaba asked. "Don't you feel at all out of place amongst them?"
"Sometimes," Yukino admitted. "Quite a lot actually. Their attitude of strength before all else isn't something that comes naturally to me, so when talking to most members I try to compensate by not really showing any emotion at all. But… for all their faults… I do still consider them my family."
"Well, even if you don't have a message from the others, you're always welcome to visit us."
"Thank you, Master Macao," Yukino dipped her head respectfully but with a genuine smile. "But for the moment I'll focus on writing that letter to Lucy."
But as she sat down and summoned Libra to give her the necessary pen and paper, Yukino did find herself mulling over the last couple of days. This was the first time she'd spent any time with a guild other than Sabertooth and it had been… fun. Great fun in fact. Sabertooth had fun too of course but here she'd felt much more relaxed. Much more at home. Everyone was more open, kinder… and it was so obvious how much they cared about each other.
Sabertooth were the strongest guild in Fiore while Fairy Tail was the weakest. And yet Yukino found herself wishing that Sabertooth took a few pages out of Fairy Tail's book.
"New message from Yukino everybody," Lucy called out, waving the newest letter she'd received from the Spirit World above her head. "It says that she's about to leave soon so if there's anything else we want to say to our friends back home, now would be the time to do it."
"Well I think mostly we've covered everything," Levy tapped her lip. "I can't think of anything I'd say that I haven't already said, though I suppose I could tell Jet and Droy that I miss them again."
"You mean like they have about fifty times already to you?" Mirajane giggled.
"Yes… like that."
"Well then," Makarov said, clearing his throat loudly. "There is one thing that I myself would like to say. But first, does it say anything about what they're going to try in order to get us back, Lucy?"
"Well aside from talking to Hibiki, they mentioned something about going to the Magical Library to have a look around."
"The Magical Library!" Levy gasped excitedly, leaping up from her seat with eyes sparkling giddily. "Oh well that changes things. Maybe I should send a list to Jet and Droy of books that they could pick up for me. Or maybe subjects that they could search for books about while they're there. Oh, I've always wanted to go there… I better get thinking."
"Yes, well, before you do that Levy," Makarov said over the laughter that followed Levy's sudden enthusiasm. "I have had an idea of my own."
"On how to get us back?" Gildarts asked.
"Yes," Makarov nodded. "I have no idea if it will bear fruit but I believe it to be worth a try."
"What's the idea, Gramps?" Natsu asked.
"To get in contact with a very specific person. A person that we know for a fact has had experience with dimension travel in the past, but that few of us here ever got to know particularly well. In fact, I think the person who knows him best would actually be you, Pantherlily."
"…You can't mean…" Lily's eyes widened, as he and several others cottoned on to what Makarov was saying at the same time. "…The Prince?"
"Yes. I am talking about Mystogan."
Surprise etched itself across the face of just about everyone in the room. The sole exception was Erza, who bit her lip and ended up looking down at her hands.
"Mystogan?" Lucy blinked. "But… how are we supposed to talk to him? He's not on Earthland anymore. He's on Edolas."
"And Edolas has no magic in it anymore," Lily agreed. "And even when it did have magic we never had anything like a Celestial Spirit Mage on it until Lucy herself showed up. We have absolutely no way of making contact with anybody on Edolas."
"Indeed we do not. However… Mystogan is not the only person from Edolas I know besides you Exceed."
"He's not?" Happy blinked. "Well then… who else?"
"Most of you here know Porlyusica, do you not?" Makarov smiled. "I am, in fact, talking about her."
"EEEEEHHHH!?" several people shouted at the same time.
"Porlyusica-san is from Edolas!?" Lucy gasped.
"The grumpy old lady who lives in the forest and hates everybody!?" Gray agreed.
"Gramps' old girlfriend is from the same world as Happy!?" Natsu shouted.
Makarov cleared his throat loudly to silence all the questions. "Yes. Porlyusica is indeed not from Earthland. I met her after she'd recently arrived on Earthland by accident, rather like how we arrived in this world accidentally ourselves. She has been living there for the last fifty years, but she has told me that there have been multiple times where she had the possibility to go home and she chose to stay. She never shared the exact details with me but I trust her word."
"Fifty years?" Pantherlily placed a paw on his chin thoughtfully. "But the Anima project was only constructed approximately ten years ago… or at least ten years before the time we lost."
"Precisely," Makarov nodded. "Which means the Anima is not the only way to Edolas. There has to be other ways. The King of Edolas had to find out enough things about Earthland to design the Anima to gain our magic after all. But even though I have known about Edolas since I was young, I have never particularly given it much thought until recently. I never could have imagined that they would try to take our magic. And I never once considered the possibility that Lisanna could have been transported there. I just assumed you were dead as everyone else did. And for that I am sorry, Lisanna. It is possible we could have gotten you home sooner if only I had thought of that."
"It's not your fault, Master," Lisanna said immediately and reassuringly. "There was no reason why you should have thought that had happened."
"Thank you. I appreciate your forgiveness," Makarov dipped his head to her gratefully.
"So if there are other ways to get to Edolas from Earthland," Gildarts interjected. "You believe Old Lady Porlyusica might know them?"
"Maybe," Makarov nodded. "It's a long shot, but it might pay off. And I have no idea whether Edolas' loss of magic could have affected the other ways of getting there in any way. It's entirely possible this is a complete dead end. But it's worth a shot, don't you think?"
"I see what you're saying," Gray smirked. "If someone from Earthland could find a way to get to Edolas, they could potentially bring Mystogan to Earthland as well."
"And if they could bring Mystogan to Earthland," Juvia chimed in. "He could potentially create another Anima portal that could get us home!"
"Along with Tenroujima and everything on it," Lucy added. "After all, the Edolas Anima transported the entire town of Magnolia, even though it turned them into a lacrima on the other side."
"It might just work," Cana grinned, her expression being mirrored in almost every face across the room.
"That wouldn't be a quick process," Pantherlily said. "I don't know much about the inner workings of the Anima, but I do know that transporting something the size of an entire island would require a massive version of it. And the one the Edolas Kingdom used took a couple of years to construct."
"Nevertheless it's a start," Charla said. "I'd quite like to meet this lady one day."
"Me too," Wendy smiled. "Lucy-san, are you going to write all that down?"
Lucy nodded, taking a fresh piece of paper and laying it out before her, but as she sat down she paused with the pen above the paper. Another thought had just trickled into her mind. If this was the last time Yukino could send a message for a bit then… this might also be the last chance she'd have for a while to take Loke's suggestion.
She bit her lip, her mind tearing itself in half wondering whether she should do it.
But there was no reason why she shouldn't except her own fear. Fear of what his response would be. For the longest time, Lucy had thought her father didn't really care about her that much. That perception had started to change after the incident at Love and Lucky… but if he received her letter and it turned out he didn't particularly care that she was still alive… she would be nothing short of devastated, even though she'd long tried to tell herself she didn't care about him either.
However… she couldn't just chicken out and leave it behind. That was the coward's way out.
"But that's not all I'm going to write. I… have a little letter of my own I'd like Yukino to deliver on her way back to her guild."
Sirius walked into the main room where Fairy Tail spent most of their time about an hour later, along with Remus, Tonks and Mad-Eye, to find it still abuzz with the possibility that there might be a way for them to return after all. Lucy had only just sent off the letters, having spent the better part of the last hour penning out all the details. And when they did get home, every one of them was determined to build their guild's reputation back up from the ground.
But there was one person who wasn't joining in the general enthusiasm. Sirius frowned when he noticed Erza leaning against the wall by herself, her arms folded and her head down, staring at nothing.
"Everything okay?" he asked when he stepped over to her, startling her out of her evidently deep thoughts in the process.
"Yes," the redhead nodded quickly. "Yes, I'm fine."
"Right, cos you don't look fine."
"No, really it's nothing. It's just… well… there's nothing that can be done about it so there's no use talking about it."
"Oh, on the contrary - talking about it is the best thing that you can do when there's nothing else to be done," Sirius pointed out with a slight grin. "You know if something's bothering you, you can share it with me, can't you?"
Erza stared at him levelly, and Sirius was practically able to hear the cogs turning in her brain.
"Actually… you might be in a far greater position than most to understand," she eventually said, taking a deep breath to try and calm herself down. "You've heard about the man who the Master believes might be able to bring us home, yes?"
"Yeah, this Mystogan chap. What about him? Oh, wait, let me guess," Sirius gave her a slightly crafty grin. "Were you two lovers or something?"
"Wha… NO! No, nothing like that! Nothing at all!" Erza said, though her face promptly decided to try and camouflage itself in her scarlet hair. She coughed, trying to get herself back under control before continuing. "But… Mystogan's real name is Jellal. And I was… very close… with his counterpart on my world. The Earthland Jellal."
"Counterpart?" Sirius blinked. "So like… there's copies of everyone on your world in this other Edolas world."
"Indeed - I came face to face with my own counterpart. But the point is… speaking of Mystogan started me thinking about Jellal. And… that's a subject I've been trying to avoid thinking about."
"I see. I suppose he must think you're dead too."
"Perhaps. But considering I last saw him being arrested by the Magic Council and taken to prison, he might not have the slightest idea for all I know," Erza murmured, her fingers tightening upon her arms and an unusual bitterness seeping into her voice.
"Taken to prison?" Sirius blinked. "For what?"
"His circumstance… it's quite similar to yours actually," Erza sighed. "In some ways it's not as bad and in other ways it's much, much worse. Like you he was arrested and sentenced without a trial. But unlike you, he actually did do the crimes that he was convicted for - slavery, destroying the Magic Council… and murder." She swallowed, and Sirius was quite taken aback at how empty her eyes looked in that moment. "Indeed, he killed one of my best friends… a man called Simon. Right in front of me.
"The complication is that he was not doing any of that while in his right mind. He was possessed when we were children, overtaken by a dark spell that infected his mind and drove him mad. A spell cast by one of the members of Grimoire Heart or so I have heard. He went from a kind, brave and altruistic person to a cunning and evil mastermind in the space of a minute, and he was trapped in the thrall of that spell for a good eight years, committing multiple evil acts along the way. Only after he was defeated in battle by Natsu did the spell break… and he returned to his old self with no memory at all."
"…Well that's a small mercy isn't it?" Sirius breathed, unable to believe what he was hearing. He'd seen from experience how devastated people could be after someone made them commit evil under an Imperius Curse, but what Jellal had been through sounded infinitely worse. "If he couldn't remember all the things he did."
"Maybe. But I still told him he did it, for at the time it was unclear to me whether he'd been doing it all of his own will or not. He looked like a broken shell. And he was still arrested anyway, for crimes he didn't remember and never would have done were he not possessed. And all that was six years ago, shortly before our imprisonment in time. He's most likely still languishing in a prison cell now for all I know. Does he remember anything? Does he think I'm dead? Has anyone ever gone to visit him? Is he even still alive? I don't know. I don't know anything…"
Erza's voice had gradually been getting more and more strained as she spoke, her face tightening as she struggled to contain her emotions. To Sirius it suddenly became clear as day that she harboured some very deep feelings for this man. He couldn't say what the nature of those feelings might be, but they were there.
"That's… extraordinarily unfair," Sirius whispered, running a hand over his face. "Jeez, I thought I had it bad to receive twelve years in Azkaban for no reason but that… I have no words. But you know, thinking about it, Jellal has one thing that I never had when I was in prison."
"What?" Erza asked, finally looking up at him with shimmering eyes that told Sirius she was moments away from crying despite her best efforts.
"He has friends on the outside," Sirius gave her a comforting smile. "I don't know whether he thinks you're dead or not. Most likely he does. But you're going to go back to your world one day and then you can show him yourself that you're alive and well. And then he will know that he has those outside the prison who know his true story and who will be there to support him whenever he gets out. When I was in Azkaban everybody believed I was guilty, even Remus or Dumbledore. Not one person believed me an innocent man except Wormtail, and he doesn't count. But Jellal has you. And though that might not seem like much, trust me when I say that to an man behind bars it would actually make a massive difference."
"…You're certain?"
"Absolutely! It would have been so much more bearable for me in Azkaban if I'd had just one person know the truth. And more than that, one person fighting for my freedom. Look at me now," Sirius grinned as he gestured out to the room at large. "Everyone in here knows I'm innocent and not only that… they're all defying the our own Ministry to keep me out of prison, and my soul in my body. And there's no reason you can't do the same for Jellal when you get back home. Just saying."
He gave Erza a wide grin, which turned out to be quite an infectious one because Erza's grim expression turned into a smile as well.
"You're right," she nodded. "I do believe in Jellal. And never will I stop doing so again. For a long time I believed him guilty myself back when he was still under the possession but now I do know the truth. When I let them take him… I did so because my friends were getting in trouble trying to defend him. One man being sent to jail unjustly was preferable to ten. But I will not let him stay trapped in the darkness for any longer than necessary. I will fight to see him freed. Not only from prison but from all accusations against him. I will make sure the world knows the truth about who he really is."
"Attagirl," Sirius grinned. "You can be his light to guide him up and out of the darkness. A light that I have in the form of Harry and of the Order."
"Thank you, Sirius. I believe I needed to hear that."
"No problem at all. And you never know… maybe one day I'll get to see what your world looks like. And if that day ever comes, I think I'd quite like to meet this guy."
"Wouldn't that be something?" Erza laughed lightly, her mood having lifted considerably. Sirius was quite right. Jellal had been the one who inspired her to fight for freedom when they'd been slaves in the Tower of Heaven. It would only be right for her to continue fighting for his freedom as soon as she became able to do so.
Things began to settle into an unsteady routine at Hogwarts school, though things were still not going well for Harry. In the next few days after he left the DA while Ron and Hermione searched desperately for a way to get through to him he also tried to step down from the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. Which despite everything was still a shock given how much Harry enjoyed and loved the sport.
He was not allowed to though. Angelina point-blank refused to accept his resignation. "You may have been the leader of the DA," she declared. "But I am the captain of this team and therefore here I'm the one who calls the shots. You stay, Harry. I have every faith you'll snap out of this funk you've got yourself into eventually and I refuse to have your spot on this team filled with somebody else when you have."
So Harry stayed, though it was obvious to anybody watching that his heart wasn't really into the game. He kept losing concentration in the practices, which meant Fred and George had to fly in rings around him just to keep Bludgers from smacking into him over and over again.
And of course, every weeknight he had to head into detention with Umbridge and effectively carve lines into the back of his own hand once again. Which did nothing to help his condition in the slightest.
But while Harry was beginning to fall apart, so was Umbridge. Neither one of them had the same air they had about them during Harry's first detention. Harry's fire had been put out and he seemed like nothing but a lifeless drone waiting for it to be over. While Umbridge spent the entire time looking over her shoulder to make sure there were no Harpies swooping towards her window.
Fred and George had really stepped up the game against the High Inquisitor. The night with the Harpies was only the opening salvo in a constant mental torture campaign.
For instance, where before they'd been launching sporadic but full-on attacks with the werewolf to chase Umbridge around, now Umbridge was seeing the werewolf just about everywhere she went. Rarely an hour went passed where she didn't round a corner and see it at the end of the corridor in front of her, prompting her to scream and run the other way until she realised she wasn't being followed. She walked up a flight of stairs and looked over the banister to see it staring up at her a couple of flight's below. At one point she even walked into a Defence Against the Dark Arts class full of students and saw it standing on her desk. And when she finally mustered up the courage to return to the room ten minutes later, trembling from head to toe, it was gone.
But the werewolf was far from the only thing she was seeing. She was also seeing other half-breed creatures all over the place too. At one point she stepped out of a cubicle in one of the women's lavatories to find the massive Lizardman hunched next to the sinks. She walked up to the Owlery to find all five Harpies in it, and fled immediately with their screeches ringing in her ears. And at one point she even walked into one of the greenhouses in search of Professor Sprout and found a massive Sphinx sprawled out across the floor.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" She had screamed as she fled the area, the Sphinxes claws barely missing the back of her coat.
And yet, every time she fled, as soon as she worked up the courage to go back the proof was gone. Even the Lizardman - for it didn't appear to see her when she stepped out of the cubicle and dove back in, which gave her the courage to peek out of the cubicle again a mere minute later only for it to be completely gone. She hadn't heard it leave, just as she hadn't heard it arrive. So what the heck was going on!?
The answer lay in a combination of the Room of Requirement, the Marauder's Map which Fred and George had borrowed from Harry, and Cana's Card Magic. They monitored Umbridge's progress everywhere she went on the Map, used the Room of Requirement to create a passage to a location not far from where Umbridge happened to be when there was nobody else nearby, and then Cana would slip a card out to either create the half-breed animal like the Harpies and the Sphinx, or to release Pantherlily or Elfman from where they'd been held inside her Card Dimension. And then as soon as Umbridge had fled in terror back into the card they went, Cana summoned the Card back to the hand, and the passage they'd used to get to the area disappeared as required.
They were, effectively, haunting her.
And it was having an incredibly detrimental effect on her. So paranoid was she becoming that she no longer slept in bed, but curled up in the corner in her own office which made things even worse because it was there that she was under the influence of Freed's runes deepening her paranoia even further. As a result she barely got half an hour's sleep a night, and the lack of sleep was derailing her mind even worse.
She was unravelling at an incredibly fast pace. And through it all she remained convinced that Hagrid had to have some involvement in all this despite never once getting a shred of proof that he was.
But she was determined to find some at the next Care of Magical Creatures lesson the following Tuesday.
Since the rather disastrous first lesson, Hagrid had decided to be a little more open to Hermione's ideas for keeping to the official requirements for the O.W.L.s and so they were learning about Knarls on that particular day. Hagrid carefully stepped through one of the pens of hedgehogs he'd collected before the class, casting the occasional nervous glance Umbridge's way as he spoke.
"Normally all these little guys would be hibernatin' by now, but I've brought 'em all here and woken 'em up just for this lesson cause you'll be learning how to feed 'em anyhow. Now then, I want yeh to break into groups of four an' each group of yeh will be entering each of these pens. Yer task is ter identify which of these animals are genuine and ordinary 'edgehogs and which of 'em are Knarls. Now, the trick is ter offer each of them individually a small saucer of milk. If its an 'edgehog it'll take the gift but if it's a Knarl it'll get angry. Highly suspicious creatures Knarls. Don' trust nearly anything."
"Hem, hem," Umbridge piped up. "Is this not supposed to be a Care of Magical Creatures lesson sir? Are they not supposed to be learning how to care for these Knarls? Not how to make them angry?"
"Oh, you bitch," Hermione whispered. "Identifying Knarls from hedgehogs is on the Care of Magical Creatures syllabus and you know it."
"Course they are," Hagrid said quickly, looking a little flustered. "But… but, y'know, hedgehogs and Knarls has very similar anatomies but very different requirements. Yeh gotta know which one yer dealing with for sure if yer gonna take care of a Knarl probably. Tha's the first step. Yeh treat a Knarl like a hedgehog and they could ruin yer garden."
"Are you certain Knarls are the kind of thing you want to be teaching these children about?" Umbridge pressed insistently. "You wouldn't prefer something a little more… volatile? Hmm? Like for instance… a Lizardman!" She jabbed her finger accusingly at him, certain that he had been responsible for creating the Lizardman and hoping that it would catch him off guard.
But Hagrid just looked confused. "Lizardman?" he asked. "Why, there's no such thing as a Lizardman, Professor. I'm quite certain tha' would be included in the Monster Book of Monsters if it were real. Or at the very least Fantastic Beasts an' Where Ter Find 'Em."
Umbridge seethed quietly to herself. That hadn't worked, but then again she was the one who had come up with the name Lizardman to describe that thing. Maybe Hagrid had given them a different name. She watched for a while as the students milled about the pens under close supervision from Hagrid, offering milk to the hedgehogs and stepping back quickly if one of them hissed at them. Theodore Nott tried to kick one of the Knarls when it did that and Hagrid immediately stepped forward and pulled him away, docking ten points from Slytherin and giving him a detention.
He was actually doing a good job as a Care of Magical Creatures teacher!
But Umbridge didn't bother penning any of it down, good or bad. She was too determined to catch him in the act.
"Are you certain it's wise to just have these pens open to the air like this?" she asked in a rather obvious attempt to be nonchalant. "What if a Harpy swept out of the sky and snatched one of your Knarls up for its breakfast. Wouldn't that be irresponsible towards your creatures, Mister Hagrid?"
Hagrid frowned. "Weren't yeh sayin' a few night's ago that you was attacked by Harpies?"
"Yes, yes, I was!" Umbridge pressed quickly. "But you weren't there when I said that! So how did you know, hmm?"
"Pomona told me a' the breakfast table the next day," Hagrid said simply without the slightest hint of nervousness. "Yeh sure yer okay, Professor? You know Harpies aren't a real thing, don't you?"
Umbridge's face coloured sharply when she heard some of the students snickering behind her backs, though when she wheeled around she couldn't tell which ones. They were laughing at her! Nobody believed her! This Hagrid was an amazing actor to keep playing so innocent like this but she would not have it! She would not lose to someone like him! She would find proof of his guilt if it killed her!
"If you think you can outsmart me then you severely overestimate your capabilities, you disgusting mongrel," she growled, now deliberately trying to make him angry. "I know what you're up to! I know why you've been gone so long. You've been gathering… them… haven't you? Haven't you!?"
She didn't get the reaction she was hoping for though. Instead of flaring up at the blatant insult Hagrid just looked upset. "Tha' was uncalled for, wasn't it?" he blustered. "There's no need ter be throwin' aroun' name-calling like tha'. What did I ever do ter yeh ter make yeh hate me so much, Professor?"
Umbridge just stood there fuming until Hagrid eventually let the matter drop and returned to the class, though now considerably downtrodden and obviously hurt by her words.
"I think it was a good idea not to let Hagrid in on what we were doing after all," Hermione whispered to Ron as they fed milk to a couple of hedgehogs. "Those reactions were so genuine… and it's making her madder."
"Good call from Mavis," Ron agreed. "She looks like she's reaching the breaking point."
And that certainly seemed to be the case. Umbridge stood around sulking for the rest of the lesson, as well as looking all over the place for any sign of an incoming attack but there was nothing. No werewolf, no Lizardman… but she wasn't about to let that fool her. She wanted to head right back up to the castle then but she also didn't want to walk on her own across the grounds again so she waited until the class ended so she could walk behind the students instead. She kept glancing over her shoulders at Hagrid suspiciously as she went, hoping to spot something that would give him away, but he seemed to just be taking care of the Knarls instead.
And quite abruptly, as they were walking by the edge of the lake, something surged out of the water and wrapped around Umbridge's ankle, yanking her off her feet and dragging her across the shore in the space of a moment. The students whirled around to see what was going on at her sudden screams, but by that time she was already half in and quickly vanished beneath the surface.
She struggled and kicked and twisted herself around in the water just in time to see what was holding her. A merperson, holding a strand of kelp like a whip in one hand and what appeared to be a sword in the other. But it didn't look like the merpeople of this lake at all. It was much more human like on its top half, like a woman with short and scraggly blond hair… and it's tail didn't have the usual fish-scales. It was smooth and grey, with more pronounced fins. And when the mermaid grinned, Umbridge's heart almost stopped when she saw the size and sharpness of her vicious looking teeth.
It was like she was a shark mermaid!
And she wasn't alone. Three others were swooping up from the depths with swords in hand, their tails swishing from side to side instead of up and down, teeth bared and weapons raised as they homed in on the High Inquisitor with hungry eyes! Umbridge panicked and screeched, thrashing her limbs as the other one reeled her out of the shallows towards deeper water, but this time she did still have her wand and drew it from her waist, firing quick jets of boiling water down at the incoming mermaids. They twisted and reeled aside, just in time for Umbridge to cut the kelp and scrabble herself back onto land, hacking and spitting water for the second time that week!
This time a couple of the Slytherins did run in to help her, including Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson. "Are you all right, Professor?" Pansy asked, though she quickly backed away because of how soaked through Umbridge now was. "What was that?"
"Shark maids! It was shark maids!" Umbridge babbled quickly. "Mermaids that were half sharks! Disgusting, vile, repulsive…"
"Like sharks?" Zabini frowned. "That's not a thing, is it?"
"No, it's not," Daphne Greengrass shook her head. "There's only two kinds of mermaids and none of them have anything shark-like about them."
"I'm telling you, they were! They were going to eat me, I know it!" Umbridge shouted. "One of them pulled me under with a whip thing and they had swords and…"
"Are you sure it wasn't that, Professor?" Daphne pointed out across the lake, and when Umbridge looked she saw the tentacles of the Hogwarts Giant Squid rising up from the surface of the water not far away, its body surging up just enough to give the students a look with its enormous eye before sinking back beneath the water once again.
"Looks like the Giant Squid was just messing with you a little, Professor," Daphne snickered. After all, the Squid was a domesticated one and posed no threat to students or staff alike unless they tried to attack it. Though it was known for randomly plucking students from the banks and dragging them in every now and then. It seemed to amuse it. And so everybody immediately agreed with Daphne's summation - that was logically what must have happened.
"No! It was not! It was not the Squid, it was…" Umbridge blustered, but she could already tell that she wasn't about to convince anybody of what she'd seen here either. Screaming in frustration she shoved those closest to her aside and dashed towards the castle ahead of them, consumed in a combination of rage and fear. Now she was absolutely and completely certain that Hagrid had something to do with that! For an attack to happen so soon after she'd insulted him! It could not be a coincidence! But how… how… how had he done it!?
And what if that wasn't the only attack, there might be another any second! She had to get back to her office! Had to lock herself in quick before something else happened to her!
Scurrying up the stairs, and pushing students aside as they hurried to their next classes, Umbridge found her eyes roaming all about her wildly; raking the walls, the ceiling… everywhere in search of the creatures that had been plaguing her. She expected any one of them to suddenly come leaping out at her at any moment, teeth and claws reaching for her throat. So far she'd been lucky to avoid being mauled by any of them but how long would it be before her luck ran out!
Had to get to safety, had to get to safety, had to get to safety!
And then, sure enough… there! She could see the werewolf up ahead, baring its teeth at her as it stalked on all fours down the banister of one of the stairs a couple of stories above with students walking past it as if nothing was there. Umbridge pulled to a screeching halt and dashed the other way just as the werewolf sprang from its perch, sailing through the air to land a mere half a metre from where Umbridge had just been, but by that time Umbridge was panically shouldering students aside and bolted behind a tapestry.
To her great relief, the secret passageway she'd discovered when she herself had been a student at this school was still there. This would get her up to the floor where her office was located quickly, and she waddled along it like Morgana herself was after her…
…only to find her way blocked about halfway along it by the Lizardman.
"GAAAAAAHHHH!" she screeched as the great reptilian beast filled the corridor before her, one great clawed hand reaching out as if seeking to crush her head. "EVERYWHERE I TURN! STUPEFY! STUPEFY! STUPEFY!" She rained red hexes at the green monster as she backed away, but it just raised its arms and took the blows without any noticeable effects. It lurched forward but Umbridge was able to slow down the sudden lunge with an Impediment Jinx just long enough for her to flee the other way once more.
By this point most of the students were already in their next classes so the stairwell was mostly empty. Fortunately the werewolf had also disappeared when she got back to the other side, but once she'd gotten to the third floor she spotted it again, standing at the far end of a corridor with its back to her. She wheeled around before it could notice her presence and bolted another way, past a large statue of Gregory the Smarmy… when a low growl from behind it caught her attention and she whirled around to look.
There was the Sphinx again, seemingly having been taking a nap behind the large statue, but now it was clambering to its feet, golden eyes locking upon the witch before it. Umbridge bolted, charging away before it could completely wake up, but as she hurtled past an open window suddenly a harpy landed on the windowsill with a loud screech and snatched at her with its talons. Only a panicked twist to the side saved Umbridge from being caught and she twisted around to scream, "REDUCTO!" The Harpy leapt out of the way just in time but the window and a large amount of the stone wall around it shattered and crumbled under the effects of the spell, almost burying Umbridge in the debris. But she hauled herself to her feet and ran on, her heart in her mouth.
She turned another corridor, and there was the werewolf again. She turned another and she could see the Sphinx stalking her. Reach the stairs again and she could see the Lizardman climbing its way up.
'They're stalking me!' she thought wildly, all but foaming at the mouth in her terror. 'They're all hunting me and me alone! None of the students! None of the other staff! It has to be the half-giant! He's out for revenge against me!'
She hurtled wildly from one place to another, trying desperately to navigate her way back to her office, but it seemed like almost every turn she took ended up being blocked by something! But eventually she found her way through and charged through it, bypassing the Sphinx moments before it leapt out at her and throwing herself into her office. She turned and bolted and barred the door with every locking spell she could think of - boarding it up and chaining the boards. And even when she'd finished there was still a hammer blow to the door from the other side that almost sent her stumbling backwards into her own fireplace in her fright!
That was it! She couldn't stay here any longer as long as those things were after her! But there was no way that she was about to let go of all the power she'd obtained at this school without a fight! Either she went, or the half-giant went!
So, with the growls and snarls of the half-breeds ringing in her ears, she lit a fire and plunged her face right into it as soon as she'd tossed in some Floo Powder.
"Minister of Magic's Office!" she screamed into the flames. "Minister! Minister Fudge, are you there!?"
"I do apologise for this unexpected interruption to your daily routine, Albus," Fudge said an hour later, rather stiffly considering who he was talking to but still quite sincerely. "But I'm afraid Dolores was most insistent that I arrive as soon as possible."
"It's quite alright," Dumbledore said reassuringly, his smile as genuine as ever as they walked up the Grand Staircase together, with a few guardsman surrounding the place. "It's probably a good thing that you're here, Cornelius. I'm afraid that Dolores has not been herself recently. She appears to have lost a good amount of the confidence she began the year with and she seems… jittery, as of late."
"Have you any idea why?"
"She has given a few explanations… but none that make any degree of sense I'm afraid."
"Well I'm certain they can't be any stranger than that talk of transformed werewolf running about the school in broad daylight she mentioned not too long ago."
"…You might want to hold that thought."
When they reached Umbridge's office, Fudge knocked upon the door lightly and an unexpectedly loud yelp from the other side made him flinch.
"Who's that!?" Umbridge's voice demanded loudly.
"Dolores, it is me," Fudge called back.
"Minster! Thank Merlin you're here. Wait one moment!"
There was the distinct sound of breaking wood and rattling chains from directly on the other side of the door, enough to make Fudge step back a little in alarm right before the door suddenly crashed open. Fudge almost recoiled at the sight of Umbridge; her eyes sunken and her face caked with sweat, her hair bedraggled and her clothes filthy from where she'd been dragged into the lake earlier. He'd been able to see from her message in the fire that she looked bad, but this was a whole different level. She looked like a wild creature that had lived alone in the forest for years and had now been backed into a corner.
"Dolores! What in the world has happened to you!?"
"I'll tell you exactly what has happened, Minister!" Umbridge cried. "It's that half-giant! He's out to get me! Him and all his filthy little freaks of friends have been dogging my footsteps for days!"
"Half-giant?" Fudge frowned. "You are referring to Rubeus Hagrid, the groundsman?"
"That's him, yes, that's the one!" Umbridge nodded vigorously. "I don't know how but he's rallied a number of other half-breeds and all but declared war on me! They chase me through the halls, they harangue me across the grounds! It's a miracle that I haven't been killed yet, Minister!"
"I feared that this would be the case," Dumbledore said with what seemed very much like genuine sadness in his voice. "Dolores, there is nobody out to get you. Hagrid is a fine, upstanding member of this faculty and has been since you were here as a student yourself."
"You know full well what he's doing, Dumbledore," Umbridge jabbed a stubby finger into his beard angrily. "Don't pretend you do not!"
"I do indeed know what he is doing. He is, at this moment, in the Forbidden Forest collecting unicorn hairs for me. I have a healthy relationship with the wandmaker Ollivander you see," Dumbledore said warmly. "And as we have one of the largest number of unicorns in the country I send batches of them through to him, for no charge of course. And Hagrid is very kindly taking the time to obtain them."
"LIES!" Umbridge cried. "He's doing no such thing! He is arranging attacks on me from a number of terrible monsters!"
"What sort of monsters?" Fudge asked bemusedly.
"All kinds of fellow half-breeds! I've been attacked by a Sphinx! By strange merpeople that look like they're part shark! By a flock of Harpies… some monstrous Lizardman… and that damnable werewolf! It's still after me, Minister! Hunting me day and night… I can't get rid of the thing!"
Fudge looked nothing short of alarmed at what Umbridge was saying… but not because he believed her. "Dolores… are you all right?"
"All right!? Of course I'm not all right, not with those things hunting me!"
"But… you are hearing what you are saying, aren't you? There's no way any of these things you're saying can be true… there's no such thing and many of them…"
"I know that's what people think but I'm telling you, they were there! Minister, don't you trust me!?"
"…Yes, Dolores. Yes, indeed I do, but…"
"Then trust me now!" Umbridge said imploringly, her fingers twitching like she was tempted to seize the front of the Minister's robes in her desperation. "Nobody believes me when I tell them what's going on but I know I'm right! I know it!"
Fudge faltered a little, completely unsure what he was supposed to think at that point. "Well…" he said slowly. "Hagrid… this wouldn't be the first time that Hagrid has been accused of attacking people with giant monsters."
"But as you'll remember, Minister," Dumbledore stated. "It has recently been discovered that it was in fact Lord Voldemort that used the monster of Salazar Slytherin to attack people back when Hagrid was expelled. And that it was an artefact of his possessing a student which did the same a few years ago. Hagrid has never once deliberately set any of his Magical Creatures onto another human being. I won't deny he has a penchant for large and dangerous beasts, but he is not the kind of person to make them attack anybody."
"That is true…" Fudge conceded. He did so very reluctantly as talking about anything to do with Voldemort to Dumbledore was something of a sore spot, but he knew that Dumbledore was definitely right this time.
"I don't think he's even the kind of person that would risk such a thing at his worst," Dumbledore added. "You saw as well as I did how devastated he was when his Hippogriff was to be executed last year, or rather two school years ago. And that was an accident in class. I highly doubt, even if he had any creatures the like of which you are describing Dolores, that he would risk their safety in such a manner."
Fudge had to admit Dumbledore was right again, but before he could say so Umbridge cut in. "He would if he hated somebody enough! A disgusting hybrid like him would surely…!"
"Dolores!" Fudge barked suddenly, cutting the startled High Inquisitor off. "Look here, Dolores, I would ask that you please at the very least keep a civil tongue in your head when speaking of other members of staff."
"Yes Minister… I'm sorry Minister…" Umbridge coughed uncomfortably. "But… don't you believe me!?"
"…I want to," Fudge said earnestly. "But… well… these accusations are quite frankly absurd. Do you not have any proof at all to back up your claims?"
"…No… no, but I'm trying to get some…"
"But you don't have any," Fudge sucked on his teeth in some discomfort. "Not even a feather from one of these Harpies or a scale from this Lizardman… and surely, you must see Dolores that it's physically impossible for a werewolf to be in a transformed state without the full moon in the night sky above. I think… maybe if you were to take a few days rest away from the castle maybe these delusions…"
"I AM NOT HAVING DELUSIONS!" Umbridge screamed, unable to contain herself anymore. "Don't you see, Minister!? This is another part of that man's… and I use 'man' in the very loosest sense of the word… scheme to discredit me and remove me from office! I may not have proof but I know I'm right! The spells I've cast upon the animals that attack me have all made contact. I was dragged out of my window by a Harpy! Almost savaged by the werewolf! I tripped over the Lizardman's tail! They're real! Real, real, real, real, real!"
"Dolores, please…"
"All right, I'll prove it! Come with me! I want to talk with that half-giant myself!" Umbridge shouted and she dashed past Fudge, Dumbledore and all of the guards behind them, making for the grand staircase with the obvious intention of hurrying down to Hagrid's Hut to interrogate him again. Fudge gave Dumbledore a somewhat helpless look, and for the first time in months it seemed that the two of them were on the same page - deciding to humour her and follow on behind her as she waddled outside.
By now students were beginning to emerge from classes once again with the express intention of heading to the Great Hall for lunch. Umbridge were smouldering with such anger that the crowd seemed to part before her like butter parts for a knife, with Dumbledore and Fudge walking on behind her. Umbridge ignored the not-so subtle whispers around her as the students debated conspiracies theories about what might be happening. She had only one person she wanted to catch out in that moment, and Hagrid had even more priority in her mind right now than Harry Potter.
So much so that when she actually came across Harry in the grounds halfway to the hut, she barely paused for an instant.
"Why are we out here, guys?" Harry asked dully a few minutes before as he was steered out of the castle by Ron, Hermione, Fred and George all together.
"Well it's clear something's been bothering you recently, so we thought you might want to go and visit Hagrid for a bit. Maybe it can take your mind off things," Hermione said.
"Yeah, and you clearly need it," Ron nodded.
"Guys, look… I appreciate your efforts but you've got to stop…" Harry started but the twins cut him off.
"Ah, ah, ah, no sir, Harry. This is non-negotiable," Fred said with a wide and all-knowing grin etched across his face.
"Besides, we have a feeling that this trip might be particularly worth your while, Harry," George agreed. "Trust us."
Harry sighed, but made no further arguments. As with everything else he'd been doing recently he barely took and of his surroundings in as they walked painstakingly slowly towards Hagrid's little house…
…until they were overtaken by Umbridge that is.
"Huh?" Harry blinked as he watched the fuming witch's departure. "Where's she going?"
"Good evening Harry," Dumbledore said politely as he walked past too. "Mr Weasleys, Miss Granger."
Harry watched the procession in considerable alarm, especially when he realised where they were going. His heart was suddenly seized by concern, for despite what he'd learned recently he still cared a great deal for his friends, and that included Hagrid. Which was why, before he really knew what was happening, he upped his pace to follow the procession down to the Hut, with his companions close behind him. All wanting to know what was about to happen.
The procession arrived outside Hagrid's house just as the enormous man emerged from the forest with several long strands of silver hair dangling from his hands, which immediately proved what Dumbledore had just been saying about what he'd been doing to Fudge. But nevertheless Umbridge marched over to him and yelled, "Tell them! Tell them about what you've been doing to me!"
"Eh?" Hagrid said in alarm, looking out at his amassing audience with confusion. "Wha's goin' on?"
"You know very well what's going on! I want you to tell the Minister about what you've been doing to me, and don't you dare bother denying it, Mister Hagrid! I know your games!"
"Is this abou' that thing yeh were talkin' to me abou' in class?" Hagrid frowned. "That thing with… wha' was it yeh said? A Lizardman?"
"That's it, yes! And the Harpies! You know about them, don't you?"
"Well, yeah, yeh mentioned 'em before. But I've never seen either o' those things before in my life."
"Don't believe him, Minister! Don't believe a word of it!"
"Dolores, I do think this has gone far enough, don't you?" Fudge sighed.
"NO! NO, I DON'T! I'M TELLING THE TRUTH! TELL THEM, HALFBREED! I KNOW IT WAS YOU!"
"Really Minister, I think this is getting out of hand," Dumbledore shook his head. "I understand the High Inquisitor has the right to inspect and dismiss my teachers, but I do not think that harassment like this is warranted at all."
"No… I quite agree with you, Albus. I'm sorry, Dolores, I really am. But I cannot simply take your word for it on such outlandish accusations and stories as these without someone who's at least willing to corroborate your story."
"BUT IT'S HIM! IT'S HIM, HE'S OUT TO GET ME!"
"Repeating it over and over again won't make it any more true," Dumbledore pointed out.
"All right then!" Umbridge shouted triumphantly. "Then how do you explain that bruise forming on his face right now!" She pointed emphatically. And even Harry could see that she had a point. Hagrid's face did indeed look a little more swollen than it had done during the Care of Magical Creatures lesson earlier. And there seemed to be a little bit of freshly congealed blood in his beard."
"…That is puzzling," Fudge conceded. "How did that happen exactly Hagrid?"
"Well…" Hagrid said, shuffling a little awkwardly.
"My guess he was struck by one of his own monstrous cross-bred creations," Umbridge crowed. "Most like the Lizardman. He looks big enough to cause damage like that."
"S'nothing like tha'," Hagrid coughed. "But… if yeh must know… I fell over Fang. Not getting any younger yeh know… and that place is kinda dark even in the middle of the day. He was chasing a squirrel and the great lummox just… got in front o' me. He's an idiot is Fang, aren't yeh boy?"
Fang the boarhound grumbled slightly rested his head on one of Hagrid's own feet as he curled up for a nap, drooling all over his boots. But while Fudge bought into the story, everyone who knew Hagrid better than that could tell that he was lying. There were tell-tale signs to watch for when Hagrid was lying. For instance, when he lied, he always looked down at his boots. And for another, he started run his hand through his beard. Which this time worked to his advantage because he could both look down at his dog and try to clean his beard of blood while lying.
So if Hagrid had received a new injury, and he hadn't tripped over Fang… how had he got it?
But even though Umbridge didn't know the tell-tale signs of a lying Hagrid, she still wasn't convinced of his innocence.
"You gigantic piece of…" she growled, but a sudden movement caught her eye and she flashed her gaze up to the roof of Hagrid's property. Her heart almost stopped when she saw the werewolf hunkering down over the top of it, crawling to the edge and salivating hungrily - its blazing gaze locked right upon her.
"THERE! THERE IT IS, MINISTER THERE!" Umbridge pointed wildly, whipping out her wand and slashing half a dozen Stunning Spells up at it. Yet with agile, twisting motions the werewolf easily dodged its way across the roof, easily avoiding her spells and moving back and forth as if it was taunting her.
In fact that was exactly what it was doing, because all anybody else could see was a deranged looking Umbridge firing spells at an empty rooftop and screaming, "YOU SEE IT, MINISTER! I'M TELLING THE TRUTH, YOU SEE!?"
"That's enough Dolores!" Fudge eventually shouted, right as the werewolf finally dove off the roof and bolted into the forest. "I'm sorry, I would like to believe what you are saying… but I do not."
"But… but Minister…"
"No more buts, Dolores. I don't want to hear them. If you are having hallucinations then perhaps you need to take a week's rest. But I will have no more talk of daylight werewolves or harpies or shark merpeople… or anything of the kind. They're not real and you are the only one here who believes they are. So please, go to Madam Pomfrey's Hospital Wing, get yourself a Calming Draught and some sleep, and let's forget this ever happened, okay?"
Umbridge was breathing so heavily she was close to inflating herself, looking imploringly into the Minister's face but there was no leeway in his gaze. She quickly looked round at all the others present, taking in the mix of concern, disbelief or disconcertion and realised that she wasn't going to get support from any of them.
"AAAAAAAHHHH!" she screamed in frustration, giving Hagrid a venomous look before she stormed off towards the castle. Fudge quickly assigned two of his guards to help escort her up before turning awkwardly to Dumbledore.
"I do apologise for that," he said, with no small degree of embarrassment. "I am not certain what has come over her."
"Perhaps the responsibility of being the High Inquisitor is simply proving to be too much for her," Dumbledore suggested.
"Maybe… and I apologise to you too, Hagrid. That was very much unnecessary on her part. Dolores has… well… she's never been shy on expressing her dislike of anything she considers to be part human but she's never crossed the line so far before. We may have our differences, Dumbledore… but I will not have that."
"Well… I won' pretend that didn't hurt my feelin's…" Hagrid murmured. "But thank yeh for yer apology all the same, Minister."
"Well… I think I should be going now," Fudge coughed awkwardly. "I'll see myself out… thank you…" And he quickly turned and hurried himself away, tailed by the rest of his guards. And once he'd gone, Harry found himself filled with an immense sense of satisfaction. For the first time in days he practically felt like his old self again. How could he not, after seeing Umbridge humiliated like that right in front of her own boss?
"You know," said Ron, as they sat in the Room of Requirement later that evening. "Sometimes I forget that Fudge is actually a nice man when he's not being twisted around by fear. It was almost like we were seeing the old Fudge again today. Almost."
"Indeed," Hermione nodded. "If it were completely the old Fudge I think he would have removed Umbridge from the school on the spot after that, like he did to the Dementors after they attacked Harry. The only reason he didn't is because he still wants someone planted in the faculty that can continue to interfere in Hogwarts business. But clearly his faith in Umbridge has been severely damaged by what he just saw. This is great!"
"Good to know our work on her's been paying off," Cana snickered.
"I've got to admit," Elfman rubbed his cheek sheepishly. "I am getting a strange sense of enjoyment out of tormenting her like this… that's rather unmanly of me, isn't it?"
"Considering the crap she's been pulling around this place, I wouldn't say so," Bickslow snickered, folding away the Marauder's Map and passing it back to Fred and George. "Thanks for letting me control you, Elfman. Makes it so much easier to avoid you meeting passing students by using this thing."
"Hmm," Pantherlily nodded. "We've taken a big step today. But it's not enough if we want to get her out of here."
"What do you mean?" Fred asked. "It's been working pretty well so far."
"True," nodded Mavis. "But despite her intense paranoia and fear, Umbridge is still a cunning woman. Now that she's suffered through this fiasco in front of the Minister, she's not going to just up and call him to try and convince him that she's telling the truth without any hard evidence again, no matter how much we scare her. No, if she's to be removed from the school now we need to bait her into making a much more serious mistake in front of the Minister. Something other than just haunting her, which she won't be able to resist taking."
"That will have to be quite a big piece of bait," George murmured. "And whatever it is… it'll need to make her do something that gives Fudge no choice but to remove her."
"Indeed," Mavis nodded. "But we'll come up with something. I have a few scenarios in mind already, but all of them so far end up with at least a fifty percent chance that she will remain. If we gather construct something that gives us a ninety-percent chance that she'll be removed, then I say we go for it."
"Agreed," nodded everyone around the table fiercely. One last push to get Umbridge out… but whatever it was they needed to get it exactly right… or she'd probably end up making the school hell on earth if things went awry.
But the plan against Umbridge wasn't the only thing they had to figure out. Ron and Hermione still needed to figure out how to deal with Harry's current state of depression. His excitement at what had happened with Umbridge had not lasted very long and as soon as they'd got back to the castle he'd gone straight back to the way he'd been before, even though Umbridge's current state meant he was probably going to be able to avoid a detention that evening.
And there was the third problem.
"Hagrid may not be involved in what we're doing against Umbridge," Hermione eventually said. "But something's definitely going on with him. Umbridge was right about one thing - he didn't have that bruise to his face at the lesson earlier did he?"
"That's right, he didn't," Ron nodded. "Which means, he must have got it when he was in the Forest. And I'm betting anything it wasn't because he tripped over Fang… he's hiding something."
"So, we've got three problems to sort out at once," Hermione raised her fingers. "Problem one, getting rid of Umbridge for good. Problem two, sorting Harry out. And problem three, finding out what's going on with Hagrid… and Hagrid's sounds the easiest. I say we tackle them in reverse order."
"Oh Merlin…" Ron suddenly paled. "Does that mean we're going to have to go into the Forbidden Forest again?"
"Yes Ron. Yes, I think it does."